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| Virgin Records Coventry 1970's |
Virgin Record in Coventry was a far cry from the impersonal, walk through mega-stores of more recent times. This was the first-born venture of Richard Branson and the 60's ethos still permeated his business approach. The Coventry store was relatively small run by Mike O'Hare and Malc. You could hang out in the store and listen to grooves through the headphones or chat to the guys about music. The guys lived and breathed the music, enthused and argue over it around serving the customers. They weren't sent by the Job Centre with a certificate in sales speak!
Upstairs was Pete Waterman with his mate Tilly, in the Soul Hole selling rare soul imports. Both Pete and Mike and Malc were very supportive of Hobo. We sold copies of Hobo through both the Virgin and Soul Hole stores; both placed ads in the mag to help us, wrote reviews and articles for us and compiled charts for their stores. The Peter Waterman Soul chart is the section about Pete but here are the Virgin Record Album Charts (Coventry Store) as compiled for Hobo. Later in the 70's John Bradbury (Specials), Stu Knapper (Riot Act) and John Coles (Silk Disco) all worked for Virgin and more.
VIRGIN RECORDS ALBUM CHART (Coventry Store) August 1973
Compiled by Mike and Malc)
1 Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells
2 David Bowie - Hunky Dory
3 Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
4 Faust - Tapes
5 Santana - McLaughlin
6 George Harrison - Material World
7 David Bowie - Aladdin Sane
8 Genisis - Live
9 Clifford T Ward - Home Thoughts
10 Roy Wood - Boulders
11 David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust
12 Cat Stevens - Foreigner
13 Terry Riley - Rainbow in C
14 David Bowie - Man Who Sold the World
15 Lindisfarne - Live
16 Alan Hull - Pipedream
17 Mott the Hoople - Mott
18 Genesis - Foxtrot
19 Pink Floyd - Meddle
20 Beatles - 67-68
OCTOBER 1973
1 Rolling Stones - Goat's Head Soup
2 Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells
3 Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
4 Status Quo - Hello
5 David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust
6 David Bowie - Man Who Stole the World
7 Pink Floyd - Meddle
8 David Bowie - Aladdin Sane
9 Beatles - 66 / 70
10 Yes - Yes Album
11 Led Zeppalin - 5
12 Uriah Heap - Sweet Freedom
13 David Bowie - Hunky Dory
14 Yes - Yes Songs
15 Van Morrison - Hard Rose the Highway
16 Slade - Sladest
17 Budgie - Never Turn Your Back
18 Beatles - 62 - 67
19 Faust
20 Steely Dan - Countdown to Ectasy
FEB 1974
1 Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells
2 Leo Sayer - Silverbird
3 Roxy Music - Stranded
4 Yes - Tales from Topographical Oceans
5 ELP - Brain Salad Surgery
6 Who - Quadrophenia
7 Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
8 Bob Dylan - Dylan
9 Gong - Angels Eggs
10 David Bowie - Pin Ups
11 Fripp and Eno - No Pussy Footing
12 Elton John - Yellow Brick Road
13 Santana - Welcome
14 Alice Cooper - Muscle of Love
15 Wings - Band on the Run
16 John Lennon - Mind Games
17 Faces - Faces Live
18 Donovan - Escence to Escence
19 Ringo Starr - Ringo
20 Nazareth - Loud n Proud
MARCH 1974
1 Free - Free Story
2 Tangerine Dream - Phaedra
3 Joni Mitchell - Court and Spark
4 Deep Purple - Burn
5 Bob Dylan - Planet Waves
6 Wings - Band on the Run
7 Steely Dan - Pretzel Logic
8 Roy Harper - Valentine
9 Slade - Old, New and Borrowed
10 Incredible String Band
11 Eno - Here Come the Warm Jets
12 Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
13 Pink Floyd - A Nice Pair
14 Steeleye Span - Now we're Six
15 Sutherland Bros / Quiver = Dream Kid
16 Montrose
17 Lou Reed - Rock n Roll Animal
18 Mick Ronson - Slaughter on 10th Avenue
19 Carley Simon - Hot Cakes
20 Temptations - 1990
June 1974
1 Gong - Camembert Electrique
2 Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells3 Rick Wakeman - Journey
4 David Bowie Dianond Dogs
5 Wings - Band on the Run
6 Uriah Heap - Wonder World
7 Sparks - Kimona
8 Tangerine Dream - Phaedra
9 Bonzo Dog Dog Do Dah Band - History of
10 Bad Company
June 1974 - Singles Chart
1 Sparks - This Town Ain't Big Eough for the Both of Us
2 Bad company - Can't Get Enough
3 Montrose - Bad Motor Scooter
4 Brian Ferry - The In Crowd
5 Allman Bros - Jessica
6 Captain Beefheart - Upon the My oh My
7 Kevin Coyne - I Believe in Love
8 Jan Akkarman - House of the King
9 ELP - Jerusalem
10 Black Oak Arkansas - Jim Dandy
And - From Alternative Sounds c 1979 "We talked to Tim and John here. Virgin records have been open for 6 years in Coventry. They stock everything here (except from brass bands0 and are open 6 days a week. As they are a chain store, it means that they can get most records but there are often delays cos they don't deal with the distributors direct. A chart single costs 75p here. they also have discounts on the top 50 albums (about £1 off) plus various bargains in their 'cheap rack'. This is the only shop in Coventry where they have headphones for you to listen to records first"
And - From Alternative Sounds c 1979 "We talked to Tim and John here. Virgin records have been open for 6 years in Coventry. They stock everything here (except from brass bands0 and are open 6 days a week. As they are a chain store, it means that they can get most records but there are often delays cos they don't deal with the distributors direct. A chart single costs 75p here. they also have discounts on the top 50 albums (about £1 off) plus various bargains in their 'cheap rack'. This is the only shop in Coventry where they have headphones for you to listen to records first"
